A crash course in changing the world.
I'm reporting on location where a newly invented method of currency has taken the city by storm!
What began as a local high school experiment has now been expanded to the entire city. The expansion was unplanned and rapid.
A local high school class project created Smile Bucks. The project team handed 100 Smile Bucks in varying denominations to each high school student. Whenever someone made them smile, for a reason to be determined only by the holder of the Smile Bucks, they could give one or multiple Smile Bucks to that person. The project team had arranged with several local businesses to redeem Smile Bucks for goods or services as a donation.
The Smile Bucks turned out to be so popular that businesses who were not originally included asked to participate. Then when they had piles of Smile Bucks, the businesses started handing them out to their customers to be used in the same way as the high school project.
"Amazingly," said one business owner "almost no one turned around and used the Smile Bucks themselves. They honored the rules."
The idea spread like wildfire. The high school students had to turn the job of printing the currency over to a print shop who volunteered. The print shop owner said "This is the biggest thing I've seen come along in a long time. And the general mood of the community has improved. Even when you are worried or upset, you tend to do those little things no one ever seemed to notice, like hold open a door for someone with a load of groceries. Now those little things are rewarded!"
I asked several businesses how giving away goods and services for non-real currency was affecting their business profitability. They all replied with a variation on the same theme. The people who come in to spend the Smile Bucks always bring friends. So business is up all around even after the cost of the Smile Buck items is accounted for.
I cannot say what it was like before, but I can state emphatically this is a very happy place to visit.
Signing off.
Cynawynn
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